Executive Says Loan Was Made to Councilman : Moorpark: Former chief of a waste firm says he hasn’t been paid back. But Montgomery insists the $3,500 was payment for a computer.

Contradicting statements by Moorpark City Councilman Scott Montgomery, the former chief of eastern Ventura County’s largest trash hauling company said Wednesday that he loaned Montgomery $3,500 in 1993 and is still waiting to be paid back.

Manuel Asadurian Sr., who co-founded G.I. Industries and ran the company until 1993, told The Times he was upset that his effort to help Montgomery out had created such a controversy.

Prosecutors from the district attorney’s political corruption unit have been questioning Montgomery and officials from G.I. Industries about the loan as well as a $12,000 payment made to the city councilman in 1992 by a sister company.

The payments--not reported on any campaign financial disclosure documents--were made during a three-year period when Montgomery was voting on franchise waste hauling contracts with G.I. Industries, which controls exclusive waste-hauling contracts in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark.

Montgomery, an unsuccessful candidate for county supervisor last year, said he told district attorney investigators that the $3,500 was a payment for a computer and not a personal loan. Because of that, he has said, he felt no obligation to report the sum on campaign statements as required by law.

The Moorpark city councilman last month produced copies for The Times of a check and an invoice which he said showed that the $3,500 in question was actually a payment for a computer sold by Montgomery to another company owned by Asadurian--G.I. Sweeping, which operates heavy sweeping equipment for large parking lots.

“Well, that’s all a lie,” Asadurian said Wednesday, commenting on the story for the first time. “All I know is that I loaned him $3,500. I billed him for it twice and I never got my money back.”

Asadurian said he sent two letters requesting that Montgomery return the money. The first letter was sent in February, 1994, and the latest note was sent earlier this year, he said.

In the short letters, Asadurian said he asked about the status of the $3,500 loan. In the first letter, Asadurian noted that he had asked G.I. Industries Chief Executive Officer Michael Smith to contact Montgomery and added that Montgomery had told Smith the money would be paid back quickly.

“I don’t want to hurt [Montgomery], he’s such a nice guy,” Asadurian said Wednesday. “I’m just a little upset that I haven’t been paid back. I was trying to help him out ‘cause he was having to deliver newspapers or something.”

Asadurian said his attorneys will not let him comment further on the case, because of an ongoing personal bankruptcy case and the bankruptcy reorganization of G.I. Industries, where he remains on the board of directors.

Montgomery, a city councilman since 1988, reiterated Wednesday that the money was not a loan. He said the copies of the invoice and the $3,500 canceled check which he produced last month came from the district attorney’s investigators, who obtained the documents from Asadurian.

“We got those documents from the D.A.,” Montgomery said. “Manny supplied them. He supplied the evidence that shows the money was for a computer purchase.”

Until this spring, Montgomery operated a computer consulting company out of his home called Eagle Systems and delivered newspapers for the Ventura County Star. He now works for a computer printer supply company in Chatsworth.

Although Montgomery said he has seen a copy of one of the first letters demanding the return of the $3,500, he said district attorney investigators--not Asadurian--showed it to him.

“The D.A. showed me a copy of an unsigned letter that I was supposed to have received from Manny, but I never received that or any other letter,” he said.

Another letter reportedly sent by Asadurian to Montgomery in March of this year has never been produced, Montgomery said.

“I’ve never seen it,” he said. “If this was a loan, then where’s the loan document?”

Montgomery repeated Wednesday that he did not report either payment on any campaign disclosure forms because he believes he is not required to do so. Failure to report large loans or the source of income of more than $10,000 on campaign statements can be a violation of election laws, according to officials from the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.

At a City Council meeting Wednesday night, Montgomery voted with the rest of the council to extend for three more months a franchise agreement to haul rubbish in the city, so that city officials can hammer out a deal with local haulers before the contracts expire in July.

The city is renegotiating exclusive residential and commercial rubbish hauling contracts with G.I. Rubbish, a subsidiary of G.I. Industries and the Anderson Disposal Co.

Upset by the controversy and the ongoing probe into his financial dealings, Montgomery said he did not know why Asadurian would claim to have made a loan to him.

“I am at a total loss to explain the two different stories,” Montgomery said. “I believe it has a lot less to do with me than it does with [Asadurian’s] bankruptcy. All I can do is to tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may.”